Theme: I can't do better than the unifier: HORSEPLAY. Playing with this HORSE is complicated. It combines with the theme entries like this: It can follow the first part of the entries and precede the second part, in each case yielding an in the language phrase.
The unifier: 60. Roughhousing, or a hint to both parts of the answers to starred clues: HORSEPLAY. Boisterous physical play that can easily go too far, especially indoors.
17 A. *Feature of Santa Claus' beard: WHITE HAIR. Of course. This gives us a WHITE HORSE, which can have a variety of meanings in mythology, associated with the sun chariot, warriors and fertility. Figuratively, this can also refer to white capped waves. Then we have HORSE HAIR, the long, coarse hair from their mains and tails. This has many uses, including in upholstery, brushes and the bows of musical instruments.
39 A. *Out-of-control guy: WILDMAN. He is a mythological creature from medieval Europe, or in modern times, as defined in the clue. A WILD HORSE is a free ranging animal in various parts of the world, probably descended from domestic HORSES rather than originally wild stock. A HORSEMAN is, variously, one who practices equestrianism for recreational, practical or sporting purposes.
11 D. *Bobbysoxer's footwear: SADDLE SHOES. These are casual, low heeled shoes characterized by a plain toe and saddle-shaped decorative panel placed mid foot.
A SADDLE HORSE is one that is trained for riding. A HORSE SHOE is a U-shaped band of iron fitted and nailed to the rim of a horse's hoof to protect it.
25. *Football field director: QUARTERBACK. This is the guy who throws the ball and hopes that somebody on his team catches it. A QUARTER HORSE is a horse of a small stocky breed noted for agility and speed over short distances. It is reputed to be the fastest breed of horse over distances of a quarter of a mile. HORSEBACK, generally with "on" is an indication that something is done while riding a horse.
Hi, Gang, JazzBumpa here to rein this puzzle in. So, enough horsing around - let's get to it.
1. "The Grapes of Wrath" family name: JOAD. It's one tragedy after another for them in this classic novel by John Steinbeck.
5. Pay attention to: MIND. As a verb, MIND has several different meanings, here it means to regard something as important.
9. Havana houses: CASAS. Literal, in Spanish
14. Court legend Arthur: ASHE. Arthur [1943-1993] was an American tennis player who won three grand slam singles titles, and was the first African-American selected to the U.S. Davis Cup team.
15. On the ocean: ASEA. Afloat in a boat.
16. Pixel pattern: IMAGE. A visual representation of something or someone on the screen of your electronic device.
19. Kind of wave: TIDAL. A Tidal wave is a regularly reoccurring shallow water wave caused by effects of the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth on the ocean. The term "tidal wave" is often used to refer to tsunamis; however, this reference is incorrect as tsunamis have nothing to do with tides.
20. Colorful birds: ORIOLES. New World orioles are a group of birds in the genus Icterus of the blackbird family. Males are typically black and vibrant yellow or orange with white markings, females and immature birds are duller.
22. Woodworking tool: ADZE. An ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. They have been used since the Stone Age.
23. Arouse: PIQUE. Stimulate interest, curiosity or resentment.
26. Enjoys now and then, with "in": DABBLES. Takes part in an activity in a casual or superficial way.
28. __ hand: HOUR. A clock has it's hands on it's face to give you the time. The HOUR hand, unsurprisingly, points to the nearest HOUR of the day.
29. Skater's surface: ICE. Hockey playoffs are in full swing.
32. Auditioner's aim: ROLE. A part in a play or as a character in other activities.
33. Santa __: dry winds: ANAS. Strong, extremely dry downslope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure air masses in the Great Basin.
29. Skater's surface: ICE. Hockey playoffs are in full swing.
32. Auditioner's aim: ROLE. A part in a play or as a character in other activities.
33. Santa __: dry winds: ANAS. Strong, extremely dry downslope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure air masses in the Great Basin.
34. Chess pieces: MEN. Figures or tokens used in a variety of board games.
35. Peaks: CRESTS. Tops of hills, mountains, waves, stock chart graphs, or anything similarly shaped.
38. Polite address: SIR. MA'AM doesn't fit.
41. Primitive dwelling: HUT. A hut is a primitive dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hides, fabric, or mud using techniques passed down through the generations.
42. Bothers quite a bit: EATS AT. Consuming one, emotionally.
44. Tiny ammo: BBS. Round 4.5 mm plated steel projectiles shot from an air pistol.
45. Rocky Road holder: CONE. An edible container for ice cream, named for its shape.
46. Italian peak: ETNA. An active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily,
47. Holiday veggie: YAM. Actually, a sweet potato. It's complicated.
48. Bridle strap: REIN. One of a pair of long straps typically connected to the bridle or headpiece and used to control the HORSE. Or a cross word puzzle.
49. Many map lines: STREETS. So you can know where you're going.
52. Genre for the Village People: DISCO.
Mandatory
53. Lipstick container: TUBE. A cylindrically shaped object.
54. Custard-filled pastries: ECLAIRS. An éclair is an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with chocolate icing.
54. Custard-filled pastries: ECLAIRS. An éclair is an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with chocolate icing.
58. Challenging tests: ORALS. Examinations given by the spoken word, often administered to students pursuing advanced degrees
64. Permissible: LICIT. Within the law.
65. Roused: WOKE. Awake and/or aware
66. Roof overhang: EAVE. The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building.
67. Signed: INKED. Official signings are done in ink, not pencil, for durability.
68. Church recess: APSE. A large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof, typically at the eastern end, and usually containing the altar.
69. Sometimes seedy loaves: RYES. Sandwich bread
Down:
1. Word with bone or breaker: JAW.
2. __Kosh B'gosh: OSH. Kids' clothes
3. Tuna type: AHI. Big eye tuna in Hawaii, or yellow fin tuna on the mainland.
4. Routes that contain the letters in "routes": DETOURS. Alternate routes when the main routes are impassable.
5. Half a food fish: MAHI. The mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical, and subtropical waters worldwide. It's past time to forever ban all "half a" clues.
6. Golfer Aoki: ISAO. [b 1942] Isao Aoki is a Japanese professional golfer. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.
7. Actor __ Patrick Harris: NEIL. [b 1973] Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, comedian, writer, producer, and magician. He is known primarily for his comedy roles on television and his dramatic and musical stage roles. You probably know him as Doogie Howser.
8. Took a risk: DARED.
9. Op. __: footnote abbr.: CIT. In a second reference to a work, meaning: "in the work already cited."
10. Friendly: AMIABLE. Seems nice
12. Staring intently: AGAZE. Peering intently at the dreaded A-word.
13. Monica of tennis: SELES. [b 1973] A retired professional tennis player, who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. An ethnic Hungarian, she was born and raised in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007.
18. Bard's "before": ERE.
21. Cutting talk: SARCASM. A sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter gibe or taunt. Sarcasm may employ ambivalence, although sarcasm is not necessarily ironic.
23. Temporary stage: PHASE. A distinct period in a series of events or a process of change or development.
24. Ancient Greek region: IONIA. An area in modern western Turkey directly across the Aegean Sea from the Greek peninsula.
27. Partner of raised, in bios: BORN. Said of a place where someone lived from birth through adolescence.
29. Copy: IMITATE. Ape
30. Cartoon frame: CEL. A transparent sheet of celluloid or similar film material, which can be drawn on and used in the production of cartoons. Now, a single frame collectable of a cartoon character.
29. Copy: IMITATE. Ape
30. Cartoon frame: CEL. A transparent sheet of celluloid or similar film material, which can be drawn on and used in the production of cartoons. Now, a single frame collectable of a cartoon character.
31. Finish no later than: END BY. Setting a due date.
36. Long, loose top: TUNIC. A loose garment, typically sleeveless and reaching to the wearer's knees, as worn in ancient Greece and Rome.
37. Courtroom staple, for short: STENO. A person whose occupation is to capture the live testimony in proceedings using a stenographic machine and transforming same into an official certified transcript
39. Ebb: WANE. Recede or decrease in vigor, power, or extent; become weaker.
40. Corp. VP's degree: MBA. Master of Business Administration.
43. Metal marble: STEELIE.
45. Lettuce keeper: CRISPER.
49. Grey Goose rival: STOLI. Vodkas
50. Shroud city: TURIN. Read about it here.
51. The "u" sound in "census": SCHWA. The unstressed central vowel, represented by the symbol ə in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Note that if the "u" of census were replaced with an "a," "e," "i," or "o," the sound would hardly change
52. "__ Day": 1993 rap hit: DRE.
56. Slow-moving boats: ARKS.
57. "Now it's clear": I SEE.
59. Normal: Abbr.: STD. Standard.
61. Put down: LAY. As tools or weapons.
62. Hail, to Hadrian: AVE. Ave is a Latin word, used by the Romans as a salutation and greeting, meaning "hail". It is the singular imperative form of the verb avēre, which meant "to be well"; thus one could translate it literally as "be well" or "farewell".
63. Cry of success: YES!. As when your team makes a good play or scores.
That wraps up another Wednesday. Hope you enjoyed the ride.
Cool regards!
JzB
55 comments:
Thank you Ms. Gelfand for a very nice puzzle, and JazzB for an interesting and humorous review. Please excuse any typos because I can't see the keyboard, having a stye evolving in each eye. Thus I was awake all night, and stil up at this ungodly hour. JazzB now I am even more appreciative, of the dedication involved, at the commentators thankless and payless job ! ;-) Thank you.
I found out about sweet potatoes, when I asked one, before Thanksgiving many moons ago, 'Are you a Yam ?', and he (it) said, I am not, what I yam.
Ashe is timely clue, since yesterday or so, when Novak Djokovich, the worlds tennis champion was defaulted out of the US Open pre semi finals, at the Ashe stadium for unintentionally, but carelessly, (out of frustration and anger ?) hitting a ball and striking a lady line referee. Either its Bad Luck or Bad Karma...
Many years ago, there was a controversy about Oral tests. In some examinations and at the higher levels, Board Certifications etc., written tests have coded numbers instead of candidate names ... to avoid racial discrimination, and discrimination based on state, or school, or world wide education degrees. I might say like lawyers bar exams, or Medical speciality Board exams, some candidates are qualified from out of the US schools and educational systems. So, written tests have some degree of anonymity ... like posts on this blog. However in the Oral exams, when you are sitting infront of the examiner, that is not possible ... and discrimination may result. Just saying.
Have a nice day , all.
Good morning!
HEEDing before MINDing caused a minor kerfuffle up north. Otherwise, this one went fairly smoothly. The D in DISCO/DRE was my final fill. Actually read the reveal clue, so I managed to figure out the theme, though I'd already finished. Nicely done, Susan. Esoteric expo, JzB.
Santa ANAS: Causing all manner of firestormes during California's worst fire season ever.
ECLAIRS: Learning moment regarding "choux paste."
STENO: A niece of mine is a court reporter in Minneapolis. Perhaps I should say "was." She may have retired by now.
WOKE has a new meaning. "Aware" re. Environment, Equal rights etc. Of course, it's now also used negatively. Stop here(politics)
ISAO AOKI is also in xword hof along with ESAI,ELIA and ARON Presley.
Monica was stabbed in 1993
I didn't see the theme until after i was done, it would have helped. Slow going but saved by various pickable cherries (eg ANAS,SIR…)
Thanks for the extremely informative write-up Jazz.
WC
Spent 6:14 on this one. No complaints, no particularly great clues either. Didn't see the theme.
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Susan Gelfand for your enjoyable Wednesday CW.
Carol and I FIR in 20:41 min.
Thank you Jazzbumpa for your excellent review.
Ðave
YES! FIR today. Vidwan, my eyes were giving me trouble this morning too by reading "auctioneer's aim" and causing me to wonder how ROLE fit. Hope your eyes improve soon. My other missteps were putting in WHITEness and exAmS before perps enlightened me. Saw the way the theme answers worked after getting the reveal. Lots of fun today, Susan. Thanks! And a big thank you to you, JazzB! Good to see you this morning.
Galloping off to start the day....hope you all have a good one.
Thank you, Susan and JzB for our humpday entertainment. If you want to make perfect ECLAIRS here is a very detailed INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO. Like much French cuisine it is tricky.
We have purple sweet potatoes often, as they are very popular in Thailand. They are a bit dryer and not as sweet as the orange ones.
Did you all like the VILLAGE PEOPLE ?
Welcome to the continuous parade of new posters- I am looking at you GRANJAN and RUBERAP and I think the non-stop ARTHUR ASHE fill may be why Steve is taking a time out.
Best wishes to my brother from another mother, having lived my life with many vision issues I truly empathize. Like ATLGranny, I saw auctioneers.
Susan, I had fun horsing around with your fine puzzle, fun, fast and facile. Nice theme. Although easy, it was interesting. Jazz, thanks for an informative review.
When the proper nouns are easy, I barely notice them. I intentionally looked for them, Joad, Etna, Seles, Ionia, Neil, all in my wheelhouse. NEIL was filled by perps before I got there.
Eclairs are so good. I usually buy them, but I have made the choux pastry a few times. I had good luck with it.
My mom always bought us girls brown oxfords. Yuck! Finally my sophomore year in HS she let my sister buy black and white saddle shoes and she let me buy white bucks, if we promised to keep them clean. I was in heaven.
Did you know that yams are not sweet potatoes?
The difference
I read "auctioneer" too, atl. I have reading glasses but use progressive which are not as good for xword reading
Quick solve today thanks to picking up the theme which is abnormal for me. Do the gals still wear SADDLE SHOES? QUARTER BACK going to soon be a common phrase for us football fans. It's going to be either praising them or cursing them. Not sure why, but I think the Giants will be a force this season.
Off to my med appointment today. T
hey are becoming a real pain in the ...
BEveryone BE SAFE.
FIR with some write-overs: AGAZE 4 AGApE, ROLE 4 saLE (misread the clue), YES 4 Yay. I didn’t notice the theme whilst solving. My favorite ROLE for Henry Fonda in a movie that I rewatch often. ECLAIRS reminds me of my first trip to France in 1985. I had been on a bread and water diet for a few weeks following my first gout attack when I found myself in a pastry shop in a small village. I desperately longed for an ECLAIR, but kept saying “chocolate” first instead of last and ended up with chocolate bread. In that same village at lunch in a small restaurant, my wife shot a shell across the room while enjoying her first meal of escargots.
Hola!
This was a fast trot through the grid. Thank you, Susan Gelfand and JazzB. I instantly recognized your writing style and knew I was going to enjoy the fine details in your narrative.
Hand up for HEED before MIND. In my haste I failed to read the down clues. Wite-out to the rescue.
Spanish in the puzzle is always pleasing to me so CASAS gave me a warm feeling.
I wonder if Anon-T has an ADZE on that tool board. My guess is YES.
This was an amusing theme especially since last night I saw a scene of people riding HORSEBACK and it brought back that nice memory.
STEELIES also recalls memories of my brothers with their pockets bulging with marbles.
My grandmother always referred to a dress as a "tunico" which is closely related to TUNIC and dates the Spanish language of New Mexico back to the 16th century.
Sadly, the Santa ANAS are expected to exacerbate the fires in California.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Good morning. The puzzle was easy but guessing the theme was not. SADDLE Shoes- we always called them "Rah Rahs".
DRE Day- unknown by perps.
NEIL or NeAl- never know until a perps completes it.
IONIA- Greece or Turkey. They have been fighting the 2,500 Years War. Still at it today.
MBA- originally for engineers who had never taken any economics, finance, or business classes. They don't teach anything that's not taught to any business major. Just a way for students to network and for colleges to suck money out of students for that privilege.
Vidwan827- Djokovic's hit was an absolute nothing. It was an easy hit, just like all players do when the serve changes and they hit the ball to the other player for his turn to serve. Novak's mistake was that he carried the ball with him to the sideline before he was hitting it softly to the ballboys/ballgirls. He didn't look to see that the linesman(woman) was in the way.
Trivia - currently happening are MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, US Open (tennis this week; golf in a few days), Tour de France. I wonder if the World Championship of Poker will join them.
This was a fun romp with my favorite type theme where both the first and second parts of other theme answers can be used. I had heard of Dr. DRE as the most famous rapper of crosswords but didn't know that song "DRE day" but it was easily filled by perps!
I had SADDLE SHOES when I was little but then they came back into style when I was a pre-teen through junior high years - by high school only the cheerleaders were wearing them!
HORSEPLAY reminded me of someone I saw years ago in an ER - this young woman came in with a neck fracture - fortunately no spinal cord damage- she and her husband were engaging in some spirited HORSEPLAY and she landed on the carpet wrong. I was trying to due my due diligence to make sure it wasn't an abuse case - but they were- both separately and together- sheepish and laughing so hard trying to tell the story that I wasn't too concerned about abuse!
Thanks JzB - "YMCA" is now the morning earthworm! And thanks to Susan for the creative puzzle!
Good morning everyone.
Easy enough for a Wednesday. Liked the HORSE PLAY theme, but didn't use it in the solve. Thought of 'heed' but held of until MAHI was firm and then entered MIND. Favorite clue was for SCHWA. JzB gives a good test for it.
ADZE - (Doubt -T has one in his 'tool' box. :-)). We had one on our farm which we would use to skin bark off wood. Used its smaller cousin, the draw knife, a lot.
TIDAL, tide - - German has Tide (used as a modifier. L. German Tied, Dutch tij. Seems to be akin to the Germanic words for 'time': Zeit, Tiet, and tijd, respectively.
ORALS - Closest I've come is my thesis defense. and, also, a civil service oral exam for principal engineer. ( Kind of a glorified job interview.) (The panel included members not from the agency involved.}
Spitz, never heard it called a "draw knife." We always called it a "draw shave." Regionalism?
Good morning. Thank you, Susan and JzB.
I looked at the clue "Auditioner's goal" and read "Auctioneer's aim" three times before I got it correct. D'OH !
And, still not firing on all cylinders, after getting the reveal HORSEPLAY, I looked back at each themer and only noticed that HORSE preceded the end words. Good thing you were blogging this one, JzB.
Reading the comments, I see that ATLGranny, Lemonade, Wilbur and Hungry Mother all had the same issue misreading the clue "Auditioneer's aim". Now I don't feel so bad.
HORSEPLAY - When I was around 8 or 9 years of age, I was spending the night at my cousin's house. We were roughhousing in the living room and I fell into my aunt's prized avocado tree plant. Snapped it in two. She had grown it from the seed and it was about 4 or 5 feet tall. I was so ashamed of myself.
inanehike, I think spellcheck got you at "earthworm" v "earworm". It made me smile.
Spitzboov, yep. I have both an old adze and an old drawknife in the shed. I sometimes use apple wood in my pit smoker, rather than chunks of hickory or mesquite coals. Those tools make short work of stripping the bark off the logs and branches.
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Susan and JazzB.
I finished this CW in good time with several inkblots, but arrived here to discover that I FIWed. Hand up for Heed, but I neglected to change one E and had Mend instead of MIND (and never got Esai corrected to ISAO)
I did see the HORSE theme, but wondered how PLAY fit in?
I had nags before EATS AT, Bred before BORN, Legal before LUCIT, Agape before AGAZE.
FLN, I had no problem with APSE (vs, Nave). I smiled when I saw the clue.
Interesting clue for DETOURS.
Arouse and roused - PIQUE and WOKE.
MAHI and AHI.
HUT or CASAS. (Is your hut, my hut?)
Perhaps the one who DARED, did not MIND.
If those ARKS are ASEA when a TIDAL wave hits, they might move faster. LOL
SELES and ASHE today. Our last Canadian hope, Shapovalev, is out of the US Open after a marathon match last night.
Wishing you all a great day.
Good Morning:
My egregious error this morning was not eye related so I have no excuses. Having finished the puzzle and being delighted with the Aha, surprise reveal, I was perplexed why there was no Tada, Thinking a typo was the culprit, I turned on the remove all errors function and, lo and behold, it showed my Hoar should have been Hair. Isoa and Neal were actually Isao and Neil. White Hoar on Santa’s beard looked okay to me but, obviously, it wasn’t. Shame on me for such a silly mistake! 😔 Oh well, I had fun solving it and enjoyed some cute pairings: Ahi/Mahi, Ashe/Seles, and Man/Men/Sir, plus the theme-related Rein. Nice CSO to Tin at _ _ _!
Thanks, Susan, for a very enjoyable solve, despite my FIW and thanks, JazB, for the detailed and enlightening summary.
ATLGranny @ 6:57 ~ Your “Galloping off to start the day . . . “ gave me a chuckle. 😋
Hondo @ 8:13 ~ I’ve lost all sense of time and am wondering if you had your hip surgery yet? 🤔
Lucina @ 8:29 ~ I see you’re now Trotting rather than Sashaying! 🤗
Have a great day.
CanadianEh!, was your "nags" another part of the horse theme?
D’otto LOL!😂😂. Great catch.
Poor Denis - I misspelled his last name, Shapovalov. We also had Canadians Raonic, Auger-Aliassime, Pospisil; the later two progressed well. (We are multicultural and I think I got all those names spelled correctly). On the women’s side, last year’s US Open champ, Andreescu, did not compete this year due to not being up to form after knee injury.
Musings
-What a great gimmick – HORSE can be shoehorned in between the two-word fills!
-We have to find someone to MIND our kitty when we attend granddaughter’s wedding this month
-Our ORIOLE feeder has failed miserably this year
-NEAL or NEIL? Wouldn’t you know it, I got N E _ L first
-In my “wellness check” last week, I was asked to draw the numbers on a blank circle clock face and set the hands to 11:15. You try it!
-Getting to the golf course I played with grandkids on Labor Day required close attention to my GPS map as the club was back up in the hills above the Platte River
-I never understood why some hated DISCO
-The gutters on the EAVES are running full as we’re getting much-needed rain and it shows no sign of ebbing
-The “C” in AMICABLE was not necessary
-Some mistake SARCASM for wit
-I was BORN in a hospital 7 miles away but I list my small town on forms asking for my birthplace
ATL Granny and Vidwan, I hope your painful eyes soon clear up.
Hand up for auctioneer before auditioner. Amazing how so many of us made the same mistake.
Kahlua, my all time favorite cat, was very gentle with me. David thought the cat was wild and didn't care for him. The problem was that David roughhoused with Kahlua, who obviously thought, "If you want to play rough, I can do that." If the cat didn't like the roughhousing he would have bolted.
In the novels I read, drawknife appears quite often. I read many historical novels about the early settlers in America.
"Amicable refers to a friendliness or goodwill between people or groups. Amiable refers to one person's friendly disposition. A group might have an amicable meeting, because the people there are amiable." Vocabulary.com
D-O - - re: draw knife. "Regionalism?" Possibly, although i see it flowed easily out of TTP's pen, too. My Dad learned his English in western Iowa, and polished it in Brooklyn; so, who knows. When I Googled it, it came up readily.
ATL - I was reading 'auctioneer', too, before 'seeing' auditioner. I seem to misread entry numbers a lot, too.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but had to take some time to complete it. Needed the reveal to grasp the gimmick, but did see all of the relationships. Thank you Susan, and thanks JazzB for the writeup.
On the drawknife or drawshave question: It's possible that the second is the same as a spokeshave. Kinda sorta similar to a drawknife, but it has metal handles and a seated blade (much like a plane) and is a lot smaller. A drawknife is U shaped, one pieced and has wooden handles on either side.
Suffered the same optic glitch of Auctioneer and wrote in "sale". AMAZED when it turned red. Reread it & filled the ROLE.
YR: I got white bucks rather than saddle shoes too. I think every other girl in our little HS had saddle shoes, so I didn't. About that era everyone had avocado green twin sets, but me.
FIR , no inkovers but as usual the theme escaped me likely cuz I wasn't paying attention.
I have never read " The Grapes of Wrath" . I find Botany boring!!..l Arthur Ashe to Ilsa "We've got to stop Crossword meeting like this." Yoko Ono is getting jealous.
Held off on amicable one letter too long for AMIABLE.. Schwa? Wha? Whatevər could that possəbly mean?. Where is the DETOURS D in "routes"? (based on the clue I held off on that answer). A STEELIE is a play type marble ...ohhhh! Gotcha!
Some unseen flying creatures have been knocking down my hummingbird feeder. I suspect ORIOLES. WHITEHAIR a clunky answer for Santa's beard.
What I find fascinating about the shroud of TURIN is lack of explanation of how the image was made if not scientifically "authentic."
Some Humpday fun: lots of horse fodder today..
If I do this huge favor then ______ ...IONIA.
Corpulent Californian: Big ____ ....SIR
How an atheist addresses a letter for Santa, "......." TUNIC
Crosses D Street....EAVE
_____ and shine! ....RYES.
Paid 25 c. too much, gimme a _____ QUARTERBACK
Oater on stage: ......HORSEPLAY.
What PR guys design .....ADZE.
IKEA left over screw. "Where does ____? DISCO.
On to Thor's day
Very enjoyable puzzle today, but could not make sense of how the reveal relates to both parts of the answers to starred clues until JzB broke it down for me. H-G may have said it best: "HORSE can be shoehorned in between the two-word fills!" Glad you guys are holding the reins, and I'm just along for the ride!
Gary_"I never understood why some hated DISCO"
It's easy. DISCO as a music form basically sucks. Heavy drum beat dance 'music' and all the songs sound the same. But it's definitely miles above Rap, which is just badly written, filthy poetry mouthed over a drum machine.
But as a musician you should know that talent doesn't matter; just whatever sells and the kids like.
Draw knife/shave: When I look up either online, similar images appear. Handles on either side of a central blade which may or may not be curved.
Draw Shave
Draw Knife
Being from Oklahoma, I have many relatives who went to California during the hard times, I had one uncle who lived in Oklahoma the rest, 13 uncles and aunts went to the land of milk and honey.
My parents stayed here in Oklahoma. To me, this is the land of milk and honey.
Fun, easy puzzle.
Always have a box of frozen mini eclairs for my grandsons. They like them better than ice cream.
YMCA, is one of the songs we use in my Aqua Zumba class. Hopefully, class will resume in Nov. if our CO-VID 19 PCR gets lower.
My girlfriend in Morro Bay had to cancel her outdoor Tai Chi class due to the smoke and ashes from the CA fires. We had smoke all day yesterday, but heavy winds blew it out, good for AZ but bad for CA.
Ah, what a theme for me!
I got so excited as I was reading with things to respond with
that I am now all tuckered out...
Lemon, I have Shroud of Turin link on me desktop to read after this
as I was disappointed when Carbon Dating showed it to be only a 1,000 years old.
Then, it was brought up that the material they Carbon Dated was from
a repair to the fabric made 1,000 years (or so) ago?!?!
Hmm,,,
(also bookmarked, perfect eclairs-must read...)
Tidal wave.
There are many exciting turbulent videos out there showing
what is correctly called "a Tidal Bore."
But since it has been posted before, I give you a lesser
PSA for Kayakers. If you Kayak in unknown territory, check with the locals!
To watch this, pack some tea in a thermos, & butter the crumpets...
(Sorry to bore you, but it is a PSA...)
Huts!
What do you do if these tree leaves do not grow in your area?
Many, many more how to videos on this subject to follow...
Hey! you don't have TV, or Crosswords, better learn how to make a roof!
Also in the wings is a video on how to make a shave horse!
(haven't watched it myself yet...)
for hungry Mother...
And, of course, I never had a Steelie as a kid,
but I did play Marbles. Kinda makes me want to go back
to those days and play again...
But, unfortunately, I lost my Marbles...
DO, I've never seen the curved versions. But yes, those are what I've always heard called drawknives. Have not heard the term drawshave, so it probably is a regionalism.
And I imagine you looked it up, but this is what I meant by Spokeshave
Hi Gang -
Fun puzzle today and interesting comments.
As a musician - and coincidentally, an old white guy, I'm going to point out that rap/hip hop is a legitimate musical form and has examples of high artistic achievement. If you are at all open to this idea, or are skeptical and would like to see some evidence, I invite you to watch this video
Cool regards!
JzB
The medical part of auto insurance is cumbersome and inadequate, more similar to Workman' s comp than traditional health insurance. After more than 40 min. on the phone I still do not have an ultrasound provider. It would have been simple with Aetna.
BORN and raised in San Francisco!
Yellowrocks ~ My hand is up. I shouldda known better, but I too saw "auctioneer" instead of "auditioner" first time around. Maybe because the person who is trying for a ROLE is an "auditionee."
~ OMK
____________
DR: Just one diagonal, on the near end.
Its anagram is a bit weird. We have all heard how nervous society girls can be at their "coming out" parties, some feeling that their tummies are just liquefying with fear.
We call those gals...
"SEMISOLID DEBS"!
I forgot to mention that I also mistook "auditioner's aim" for auctioneer and filled SALE before ROLE. I'll join the march to the optometrist.
No sashaying today, Irish Miss. I needed a haircut so traveled the 60 miles to the town of Florence where my stylist lives. It's a fairly direct route with only four major directional turns and doable with the GPS. But on the return trip I missed one of the turns and got royally lost. Even the GPS couldn't help me. Finally I stopped at a convenience store and asked for directions from some men loading ice. They didn't know but a passerby helped and I was pointed in the right way. It was way off the beaten path, but once on the freeway I knew where to go and way, way too late, I got home and now I have to go for my nail appointment.
Puzzling thoughts:
HU for auctioneer / auditioner
C Eh @ 9:26 —> the way I interpreted the clue and answer for 4 down, is that the word/letters “routes” shows up in the word DETOURS. Which is also a “route” of sorts
Nice puzzle Susan Gelfand; very informative recap, JzB
My only hiccup was the misspelling of SCHWA. I reversed the A & W (I had a Root Beer, I guess!!🤡), but one I saw that APSE fit 68 across, the write-over led to a “FIR”
My haiku du puzzle:
The stylish jockey
Replaced her stirrups, and now
Rides with SADDLESHOES
Getting lost, ah the joys of old age.
Hi All!
Thanks Susan for the PLAYful puzzle; A SEA (HORSE) of fun.
Great expo JzB with all the background to explain why I know of NEIL.
WOs: I always have a hard time spelling ORIeLES, SiLES, ECLAreS, geTS AT
ESP: ISAO
Fav: ÉCLAIR [Seinfeld].
Monkey in the room - yep, I read it auctioneer more than once; three perps fixed that :-)
Cute Moe-ku ChairMAN.
Lucina - No, I don't have an ADZE - I buy my wood pre-un-barked :-)
Got a text from my college chum who lives in/near SFO - OMG! She sent me a few pics from her office. Red Skies at Day?
Y'all take care out there.
PLAY later, -T
Thanks, Susan and JazzB!
Not too much trouble with today’s puzzle. Alas, I FIW, messing up ADZE/AGAZE. I had no trouble with the HORSEPLAY theme; I thought it was very cleverly done.
Had to go in for my semi-annual visit with my PCP. Headed out for my half hour drive on the toll road and realized I had left my dollar at home, so I had to get off and go back home and get it. Luckily, I travel on Lombardi time, so I still got there in plenty of time. As it turned out, I didn’t need to pay anything anyway.
ECLAIRS are my favorites! Ain’t supposed to eat them either!
Didn’t know ISAO or SCHWA, and I had forgotten NEIL. Perps to the rescue!
My paternal grandfather was a court reporter in Pittsburgh before, during and after the depression; my grandmother was his typist. My father always told us that “Dad” (as we ALL called him) was never out of work. We have an old Dictaphone at the museum, which I always have to explain to the kids – and many of the adults. (We also have an old rotary dial telephone. Try explaining busy signals, party lines, NO caller ID, and NO redial feature to today’s utes! Asking them to dial their phone number with it can be a hoot, though. Worth the price of admission!)
We do a bunch of weddings at the museum (well, did and hope to again), and being the party person I used to be, I work a large percentage of them. YMCA by The Village People is on EVERY DJ’s playlist. It usually gets played after the crowd has had a few adult beverages --- about an hour and a half before the end (along with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and a bunch of other older stuff like that). As they say, “The crowd goes wild!”
I was OK with DISCO! Gave us a bunch of nice performers!
Haven’t seen an ORIOLE lately (they don’t come this far south), but the first hummingbird of the season stopped by yesterday. Had to quickly fill the feeder. Surprised to see him again today. Hungry little guy! Gonna have to fill the feeder again!
I enjoyed this puzzle and the theme. I did wait for perps in order to spell NEIL right but too hastily put in HEED instead of MIND. Loved the clue for DETOURS. Kinda neato to see the words PIQUE and CRISPER.
The smoke here makes it look like there's a partial solar eclipse going on. It's quite dark outside and the sky is orange. One weird and good thing is it doesn't smell. And there is no ash here. It's so dark we had to turn some lights on in the house. And while it was almost 100 degrees out yesterday, today the temperature is only in the sixties.
So, Lucina, welcome to the Bay Area next week!
Good wishes to you all.
Pictures by the NY Times of the 'Red Skies of San Francisco'
I am quite late to the party today but today I was able to get a lot of work done at the office and on other fronts. I enjoyed the theme and having two uses of HORSE, after and before each part of the compound theme answers was very clever.
On the music front, I find myself with Big Easy. In the realm of popular music, I personally found it impossible to transition from The Grateful Dead, Big Brother & The Holding Company, The Youngbloods, Santana and Quicksilver Messenger Service, among others, to The Village People and Donna Summer, among others. I fully understand that folks have different, and divergent musical tastes but, as Popeye says, I YAM what I YAM I proudly wore a Death Before Disco T-Shirt during that era.
Another hand up for holding off on NEIL or NEAL until the perps, but I have learned to do that almost every time.
MalMan, you’re not as late as WikWak. I can NEVER (well, hardly ever) get here before there are dozens of folks ahead of me. Oh, well—it dozen matter.
Put me firmly in the camp of the illusionary auctioneer.
I refuse to believe that there is such a thing as a SCHWA. My wife the former language teacher says there is, but I don’t believe her. That word is just plain silly.
I did the puzzle this morning and by now that’s about all I remember. Thanks, Susan and JazzB, glad to have you back in the saddle (see what I did there?).
Going away for to leave you; stay well.
Thank you, Jayce!
WikWak:
I like your wacky sense of humor!
I can’t believe anyone doesn’t know a lovely Sweetpotato isn’t the same as a starchy yukky YAM. Maybe nits a southern thing. I ate Sweetpotatos all my life. And later learned there was this Thing called a YAM.
But it has fewer letters making it easier to fit into a crossword.
My autocorrect did me in.... sigh
Lucina, back when I drove a lot of places strange to me, I refused to say I was lost. I just had adventures. I had a lot of adventures, but it didn't bother me as bad as the other word would have.
Hi I enjoy reading your blog. But what does FIR mean?
FIR = Finished it Right
Infinite Safari: If you go to Comments Section Abreviations it will give you most of the the abbreviations used here.
PK:
Yes, I understand what you are saying and back in the day I also referred to my "adventures" of which I had many before the advent of GPS. Today, though, it was frustrating since I had so much to do in preparation for my trip tomorrow.
I'm sure when I recount this incident to my friends we shall laugh about it.
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